magtec:you haven't lived until you've narrowly avoided being smeared by a wrong-way driver barreling down a highway on-ramp at night. minnesota, US highway 10 eastbound onto 694 eastbound before the interchange was fixed, the ramp merged with the left lane so you had to be going the speed of traffic when you got to the top. i was in a saturn station wagon, wrong-way dude was in an SUV. all i saw was headlights coming at me at about 60mph, my brain was all "i see headlights. i shouldn't be seeing headlights. why am i seeing... oh @$%!". yanked the wheel to the left and hit the shoulder, the SUV blew past and kept going the wrong way down highway 10. he never braked, never swerved, never even flinched. still no clue what the hell happened that night, but it was one hell of a sober six hour drive afterward.

Oh hell, I was the SUV driver, at least I was 25 years ago coming home from college. I pulled off the interstate in nowhere, WV at 2 in the morning looking for a place to take a leak, couldn't find one, so I doubled back and took what I thought was the on ramp back to the highway. The off and on ramp exit/entrance were right next to each other, but it was dark, there was a 10 foot tall bush separating them, and there was just a sign with an arrow that pointed right at the exit ramp. I ended up going the wrong way on the exit ramp.

Same thing as you, someone was coming the other way fast and all I could think was "why am I seeing headlights?" So I swerved right off the road well before the other guy got to me and then I realized the yellow line was on the wrong side of the road. So I turned around, came down the exit ramp again, and saw the hidden entrance to the on ramp at the bottom.

Scary as fark, and I was in a 1986 Fiero, so I would have been plastered by the pickup truck if we had hit. To this day I'm paranoid about making sure I'm hitting the correct ramp, but signage and foliage are a lot better these days.

Oldiron_79:Worst wreck I seen was a roll over with a pickup whose bed was full of illegal mexicans. There where body parts strewn all over the highway.

Mine didn't have that level of gore but I did have a minivan in front of me lose the front right wheel or tire at 75+. Thing snapped straight right across three lanes, hit the breakdown lane and proceeded to tumble on it's side 3 to 4 times. It happened so fast I was a half mile down the road before my brain really processed what happened and I pulled over to go help but by that time there were a dozen cars pulled over so I went on my way.

Carn:WordyGrrl: Carn: WordyGrrl: SevenizGud: The guy with the camera driving did a pretty good job. He sees trouble essentially instantly, and he moves his car to the right.

It's a pretty good lesson for drivers ed. You have to pay attention ALL THE TIME, because there is no limit to human stupidity.

Very much this. You may be a wonderful driver, but would you bet that everybody else on the road is, too? No. You should assume everybody else is an unpredictable, possibly intoxicated idiot who's speeding and texting.

I always assume everyone around me is trying to hit me. Around DC that assumption is correct far too often sadly. I've been in a serious accident before so I'd rather be late than dead.

I've driven in DC before and it is definitely insane. Keep your wits about you in that mess. Plus, if you miss your exit, you'll end up in another state.

Truth. And some people will try to back up to get to it.

/seen that many times//yikes

And people wonder why I insist that computers would make far better drivers than humans.

Sure, you're at the mercy of a bunch of programmers and engineers--some on the opposite side of the planet--whom you've never met and don't know you from Adam. But having sat on a variety of engineering safety boards, I would say that I trust the skill and robustness of panel of nerds far more than I trust Billy Bad-Ass who may have had 2 beers too many driving home at 2 am on a Sunday morning after his girlfriend dumped him so that she could spend more time with that engineer who has money and a steady job.

That, and there's the whole, computers are never distracted, and it's always possible* to design them to fail in such a way that they safely shut down. Also known as a fail-safe.

*Regulatory officials and local politicians' compliance is necessary to make sure the local infrastructure is equipped to support the applicable engineering standards' bodies' safety recommendations. YMMV.

Lsherm:Scary as fark, and I was in a 1986 Fiero, so I would have been plastered by the pickup truck if we had hit. To this day I'm paranoid about making sure I'm hitting the correct ramp, but signage and foliage are a lot better these days.

See my comment above about local officials ensuring compliance with traffic engineers' safety recommendations. We've gotten better as a society in the last 20-30 years, but there's a lot of work left to be done. Unfortunately a lot of it involves un-doing things that seemed to make sense back in the 50s, and when shiat just doesn't break, it's hard to justify re-doing it until someone dies.

sheep snorter:When using a slimjim to pop a door lock, beware of the side airbag sensor. Unless you like the slimjim being a projectile.

Side airbags are in a separate compartment from the door mechanism and they can only ever deploy towards the driver due the metal backing that they are installed on. They are not where the lock is. If you've ever had a door apart, you would know this. Heck, if you weren't a raging retard, you would know this.

If I had a dashcam I would have great footage from my morning commute today of some teenage asshat with cornrows T-boning his Challenger into an F-150. Challenger completely totalled, pickup truck maybe scratched with a minor dent. Luckily both got out and walked away.

What I am wondering is, why didn't the big black thing (trailer?) in front of the Corolla, or even the Corolla itself swerve quickly out of the way to avoid it? it seemed like they moved over a little bit, and didn't exactly do it quickly either.

Oldiron_79:Worst wreck I seen was a roll over with a pickup whose bed was full of illegal mexicans. There where body parts strewn all over the highway.

I-19?

Swear to God, if I had more sense I'd stay the fark off I-19. The amount of skid marks leading straight off the side of the road into the quite-sizable ditch is alarming; the percentage of those that cross over on the way off (indicating a spin) even more so.

/ And trucks/trailers loaded up with junk to within a cm of the lowest bridge between Tucson and Nogales// And trees growing out of the median-side shoulder/// Oh, and if someone knocks some armco out of the ground? Stick some traffic cones in front of it; they'll know it's not safe to hit it there

meh, Common minor daily mishap in Korea. There used to be an electronic scoreboard when driving into Seoul the was updated with accidents, injuries, and deaths. It was often in the double and triple digits on the death column.

What I was really waiting for was someone to reach back and slap those screaming brats.

People love to talk about how litigious America is, but it seems like everywhere else in the world where dashboard cams are standard equipment. And who the fark takes a relaxing drive on a city street?

Crewmannumber6:People love to talk about how litigious America is, but it seems like everywhere else in the world where dashboard cams are standard equipment. And who the fark takes a relaxing drive on a city street?

I'm sure dashcams will be a thing here once America becomes an irresponsible wild kleptocracy, essentially run by out of work henchmen.

Crewmannumber6:People love to talk about how litigious America is, but it seems like everywhere else in the world where dashboard cams are standard equipment. And who the fark takes a relaxing drive on a city street?

"North into the bridge down is the reverse, first hit the road safety, then fly hit over!"

"Car accident who is 71 years old man, he said he drove to sleep...Thank God willing, our family is finally nothing serious, physical pain is inevitable, more distressed that Children who suffered child frightened (fear of a psychological trauma), these need time to recover. I usually have to teach children, the car must be wearing a seat belt habits, be there to minimize the damage. However, the accident vehicle suddenly fly out, really a chance to react."

/and I clicked that play button jpg 3 times before I realized Im a idiot

Yeah, so did I...

My excuse is that I'm on my phone, and the pic was really small, I was assuming it was a play button. I tried 3 times before scrolling down to see if I was missing something. Reloaded the stupid article each time.